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A Queen Anne Gilt-Gesso Marble Top Pier Table in the Manner of Gerrit Jensen Circa 1710
Estimate
15,000 - 25,000 USD
bidding is closed
Description
- marble, gilt
- height 32 1/4 in.; width 37 in.; depth 20 3/4 in.
- 81.9 cm; 94 cm; 52.7 cm
later marble top.
Catalogue Note
Conceived in the French baroque style developed by Claude Bérain and Daniel Marot in the late 17th century, the present table shares a number of characteristics of furniture associated with Gerrit Jensen, the Royal cabinet-maker to William and Mary and to Queen Anne from 1680 until 1715 as well as the Pelletier firm. The stylized dart and arch carved frieze with acanthus leaves carved at the corners and at its center is identical to a frieze of a table which Jensen supplied to Queen Anne at Kensington Place in 1704 (sold, Sotheby’s, London, July 10, 1998, lot 116, £1,615,500). The present table and the one at Kensington Palace are of very similar form making use of the large tapering or ‘hermed’ legs and scrolled X-form stretcher centered by a finial. Another table possibly by Jensen or the Pelletier firm made for Sir Thomas Osborne, later 1st Duke of Leeds possibly for his house in Wimbledon and eventually moved to Hornby Castle (see Christie’s, London, July 1, 2004, lot 50), has ‘hermed’ legs which are pierced like the present table. Another suite of furniture including a pair of stools attributed to Gerrit Jensen in association with Thomas Pelletier reputedly commissioned by Queen Anne and given to Francis Greville, 1st Earl of Warwick for Warwick Castle (sold Sotheby’s, London, June 4, 2008, lot 30, £337,250) also have pierced ‘hermed’ legs and similar stretchers to the present table.
Jean Pelletier and his two sons, René and Thomas, were Huguenots who left Paris in the 1680s presumably to avoid persecution after the Revocation of the edict of Nantes. The family were described as carvers and gilders, although in the late 17th century these skills were normally practiced by members of different guilds. From 1689 until his death Jean's principal patron appears to have been Ralph, Earl and later 1st Duke of Montagu. Montagu had been Charles II's Ambassador to the Court of Louis XIV at Versailles, and was later appointed to the position of Master of the Wardrobe by William III. Through Montagu's influence Pelletier was granted a large commission to supply between 1699 and 1702 carved gilt wood furniture for William III's State apartments at HamptonCourt Palace. At a cost of some six hundred pounds, the commission included six tables with gilt wood frames supporting marble slabs flanked by pairs of large gilt-wood candle-stands.
For a full discussion on the collaboration between Gerrit Jensen and the Pelletier family, please see Tessa Murdoch, ‘Jean, René and Thomas Pelletier, a Huguenot family of carvers and gilders in England 1682-1726 Part I and II’, The Burlington Magazine, November 1997, pp. 732-742 and June 1998, pp. 364-374.
Jean Pelletier and his two sons, René and Thomas, were Huguenots who left Paris in the 1680s presumably to avoid persecution after the Revocation of the edict of Nantes. The family were described as carvers and gilders, although in the late 17th century these skills were normally practiced by members of different guilds. From 1689 until his death Jean's principal patron appears to have been Ralph, Earl and later 1st Duke of Montagu. Montagu had been Charles II's Ambassador to the Court of Louis XIV at Versailles, and was later appointed to the position of Master of the Wardrobe by William III. Through Montagu's influence Pelletier was granted a large commission to supply between 1699 and 1702 carved gilt wood furniture for William III's State apartments at HamptonCourt Palace. At a cost of some six hundred pounds, the commission included six tables with gilt wood frames supporting marble slabs flanked by pairs of large gilt-wood candle-stands.
For a full discussion on the collaboration between Gerrit Jensen and the Pelletier family, please see Tessa Murdoch, ‘Jean, René and Thomas Pelletier, a Huguenot family of carvers and gilders in England 1682-1726 Part I and II’, The Burlington Magazine, November 1997, pp. 732-742 and June 1998, pp. 364-374.